The Best Underwater Proposal
by shiiki
Summary: Percy's a man with a plan. If he can just get Annabeth alone-which is proving harder than he anticipated. Fortunately, Clarisse comes to the rescue. Set in the CoL universe, post-fic.


**Summary** : Percy's a man with a plan. If he can just get Annabeth alone-which is proving harder than he anticipated. Fortunately, Clarisse comes to the rescue. Set in the CoL universe, post-fic.

 **A/N** : This isn't a giftfic, precisely, more a bonus because **strawberrygirl2000** wanted to see Percy's proposal to Annabeth in the CoL-verse. Incidentally, **Achtervuglan315** had asked me the same thing some time back after the first version of the story was done for the PJO Big Bang. So I took some time in my Internet-less hours here in the country to reformat for FFnet, and here we are. Proposal!fic for you all. Enjoy!

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 **The Best Underwater Proposal**

(A follow-up to _Curse of Lethe_ )

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If you'd told Percy that he'd ever ask Clarisse for help with his love life, he'd have said you'd been spending too much time shrooming in the Hypnos cabin.

To be fair, he wasn't asking her for romantic _advice_ (he'd definitely have to be stoned to consider _that_ ). It was more of … logistics.

Because getting Annabeth on her own for any extended period of time that summer was proving to be a greater challenge than Percy had anticipated—and that was definitely going to throw a wrench in his plans if he didn't figure out how to get around it. Between their roles as senior camp counsellors (and their training classes were wildly popular with the kids) and Annabeth's ongoing work on the ever-increasing minor god cabins (it was more like a mini-village there these days), there was hardly a private moment to be had. Even their spare time was often peppered with interruptions of the usual camp variety—Ellis Wakefield 'accidentally' frying the Demeter cabin; Julia Feingold and Alice Miyazawa stealing all the dinner plates for a skeet shooting competition so that no food could be served; Meg McCaffrey covering all the main cabins in creeper vines in retaliation. Little emergencies, that nevertheless needed the 'grown-ups' to sort out.

(Gods, grown-ups. Sometimes Percy just wanted to go, ' _Adult? Who, me? Nah …_ ' Then again, considering what he was planning to ask Annabeth, he supposed he was grown up enough. If you counted age in experience instead of years, he might even pass for middle-aged by this point.)

Added to that was the increased propensity for younger campers to spy on the private moments they _did_ get. Percy wasn't sure how exactly their adventures in Tartarus had morphed into what the Aphrodite kids proclaimed 'the greatest love story ever' (gods, he wished Piper was back to put a stop to it; then again, maybe she'd only fan the flames, incorrigible matchmaker that she was). He just wished they wouldn't be so persistent about trying to catch the 'shippy moments' for themselves. Seriously, when had teenagers become such voyeurs?

Anyway, the giggling coming from the bushes (or worse, rapturous sighs of ' _it's so romantic!_ ') tended to put a bit of a damper on any attempted make-out session.

Percy had been starting to think he'd have to ask Chiron for permission to take Annabeth out to Manhattan for her birthday when the idea came to him. And unbelievable as it was, he went to Clarisse.

He caught Annabeth between his morning swordfighting class and her afternoon cabin inspections. he joined him on the green outside the Big House readily enough.

'Wanna bet on who catches us this time?' she teased when he kissed her cheek.

'My money's on the Ares crowd,' he said. From behind his back, he produced a slightly squashed cupcake, covered with (of course) blue frosting. 'Happy birthday.'

'You remembered.'

'I did.' Percy tapped his head. 'Thalia's magic's still working. Everything staying put in there.'

Annabeth dipped her finger in the frosting and smeared it across his cheek. 'Your memory for dates was bad even before they washed out to Chaos,' she teased.

'I remembered the _important_ ones,' Percy objected. 'Today, for instance.'

He felt in his pocket to make sure the pouch he'd prepared was still there, then moved in to kiss Annabeth properly. Sure enough, the oohing and aahing started up not long after their lips met.

'Well, look at that,' Clarisse pushed her way to the front of the group that had gathered at the edge of the Big House porch to whisper and point.

Right on cue.

'Clarisse?' Annabeth said incredulously. 'I know the kids have been stalking us, but it's a bit beneath you, isn't it?'

Clarisse ignored her. 'I think our lovebirds need to _cool off_ , don't you?' She looked around at the younger camps, whose faces broadened with glee.

A whole throng of kids appeared from all directions to hoist them onto their shoulders. Percy had to hand it to her; Clarisse had certain mobilised her people well.

'Isn't this getting old for you?' Annabeth scolded.

'To the Canoe Lake!' Clarisse commanded, ignoring Annabeth.

Percy feigned annoyance, but he was grinning on the inside as they were carried down to the lake. It was all going perfectly to plan. Just before the campers chucked them into the water, he mouthed a quick _thank you_ to Clarisse. She winked back.

He grabbed Annabeth's hand as they sank beneath the surface and willed the water to push back from them, forming a flexible layer of air around their skin. He remembered quite clearly the first time he'd done this—a lot of his most emotionally charged memories had in fact become a lot more distinct since retrieving them at the edge of Chaos—and from the smile that tugged at the corner of Annabeth's mouth and the way she wound her fingers through his and squeezed, she was recalling their first proper kiss, too.

'You planned this,' she accused him. Her other hand reached up to wipe the frosting from his cheek.

'Guilty.' He should have known she'd catch on quickly.

They hit the sandy bottom of the lake and Percy dropped to one knee.

'Oh,' Annabeth said. ' _Oh._ '

He hurried to get to the all-important question, although it seemed Annabeth already knew what he was up to.

'Annabeth, I—uh—you're the—you're my, I mean—' Oh, Cocytus, Styx, and Lethe, did he have to get all tongue-tied _now?_ He took a deep breath, which was a mistake since he hadn't exactly left unlimited quantities of air in their bubble. It made him splutter and choke over his next words.

Annabeth's hand rose to cover her mouth. Her eyes twinkled.

'You're laughing at me.'

'Of course I am.' She tugged him to his feet. 'You don't have to do this, Percy.'

His heart did a slow swoop into the pit of his stomach. 'You mean—'

'I mean I was willing to fall into Chaos to stay with you—do you really need my answer?'

His heart, which must have stopped while waiting for her clarification, started beating again, very cautiously. 'You could've just let me get the question out.'

She pulled him closer by the front of his shirt. 'I seem to remember promising that I'd never make things easy for you.'

Percy shook his head, smiling. 'I think it's been the other way round, lately.'

He pulled the pouch from his pocket. In it was the simple, thin band he'd been carrying around for months, ever since he'd gotten Tyson to craft it for him.

For her.

He shook it out into her palm. The ring lay in her hand, catching the sunbursts that streamed down through the lake water, reflecting different colours depending on which angle you looked from. It was simple at first glance, but with innumerable complex layers to it.

Just like Annabeth.

Annabeth's jaw dropped. 'Is this … Adamantine?'

Percy nodded. 'The most durable stone in the world.'

'Something permanent,' Annabeth whispered.

'Exactly.'

Annabeth traced the carvings Tyson had etched along the surface of the ring in intricate Greek script: _As long as we're together._ When she looked back at him, the corners of her eyes were glistening softly.

'Well, I guess you should ask after all.' She slipped her finger through the ring. 'Even if you already know the answer.'

This time, the words came out just right. 'I want you with me forever, even if you never make it easy for me. Will you keep on not making things easy for the rest of my life?' he murmured.

'For the rest of our lives and beyond, Seaweed Brain.' Annabeth leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching. 'You're not getting away from me.'

And as he closed the gap between them, Percy thought he'd definitely nailed the best underwater proposal of all time.

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 **A/N** : I APOLOGISE FOR THE BLATANT TLO RIP-OFFS. ;)

 **Strawberrygirl2000** , it's not Christmassy, but I hope you liked it anyway.

Thanks again to all of you who liked _Curse of Lethe,_ and especially those of you who have commented. I say it all the time, but you are a delight to write for!

To the guest who left me a review on CoL on Thursday (or possibly Wednesday, whatever your time zone is), thank you! I'm thrilled that you actually reread the fic! Merry Christmas to you as well!

Anyway, I owe some of you review replies ...

 **CupcakeQueen816** , every time you comment on my fic I'm blown away by all the compliments you have to give. You're the best, seriously! I'm glad you're enjoying all the giftfics. It certainly is fun to do fluff and some short stuff, and it's given me a good break so I can come back to editing the DoW fics with gusto now. Not to mention stepping into different character perspectives is such a good exercise. I'm really glad your expectations are high, and you'll let me know when they aren't met, because I absolutely want to keep getting better with my writing, and you guys help me so much with your feedback! I'm Christian, but not Catholic-I belong to the United Reform Church in England, but I was non-demoninational in Singapore, plus I spent a good many years agnostic ... so I probably have so very eccentric religious views. That may have come out a bit in the Christmas Carolling fic. :)

 **Hello** , I'm glad you liked the MCGA fic! I love mixing mythologies (as you can probably tell) so that was a fun prompt to work with, and I'm really glad I could get it in. I was a bit worried since I've never written MCGA before, and I really don't know the books that well (I've read them, but that's about it. Definitely do not obsess over them like I do PJO!) Magnus just doesn't really capture my attention so well, so I haven't felt compelled to write about him or his 'verse.

 **BooksAndHotChocolate** , I'm so glad you liked your gift! Heh, well, as long as you liked the middle names. They do make more of an appearance in England, but they aren't a thing in Singapore, so yeah. Anyone want to 'American-pick' this for me? :) Bianca Maria ... you can decide if she's adopted or conceived via a surrogate. I hadn't really thought. Oh, and yeah, I was surprised when I went to Google 19th century motorcar races and Wiki turned up the real identity of Jules-Albert!


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